FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates one example of a conventional vehicle radio R′. The radio includes an electronic radio controller RC′ that controls all functions and operations of the radio as described herein. The radio R′ includes a digital display D′ for displaying the frequency of the radio station being received. The received radio station audio signal is output by the radio controller through one or more vehicle speakers SP. A volume control knob or other control V′ allows the user to adjust the sound volume output by the speakers SP. Up and down tuner buttons TU′,TD′ (or a rotatable knob) are provided for adjusting the frequency of the radio station to be received and output by the radio R′. Seek and scan buttons K′,N′ are typically also provided for incrementing the radio tuner to the next receivable frequency as is generally known in the art. A plurality of user preset buttons P′ (six buttons P1 through P6 as shown herein, but any other number of user preset buttons can be used) are provided for immediately tuning the radio to a user-stored preset frequency when the user present button P′ is depressed/selected, wherein the user is able to assign a favorite radio frequency to each available user preset button P′. In particular, the radio controller RC′ includes and/or is operatively connected to a preset memory M′, and each user preset button P is associated with a memory location that stores a desired radio frequency as stored therein by the vehicle owner or other user of the radio R′. The user preset buttons P′, like all other buttons described herein, can be hardware buttons/switches (as shown in FIG. 1) and/or can be software buttons/switches provided by a graphical user interface output on the digital display D′ or another digital display. The radio R′ also includes band select buttons B′ that change the radio-frequency band received and output by the radio, typically at least between AM band and FM band as shown herein (other bands such as satellite band are sometimes included).
In a normal mode of operation, when the AM band select button B′ is selected (i.e., when the radio in set to AM mode), the radio controller RC′ associates the plurality of user preset buttons P1-P6 with a respective plurality of memory locations M1am-M6am in which the user's favorite or other desired preset AM band radio station frequencies are stored. When the FM1 band select button is selected (i.e., when the radio is set to FM1 mode), the radio controller RC′ associates the plurality of user preset buttons P1-P6 with a first respective plurality of memory locations M1fm-M6fm in which a first group of the user's favorite or other desired preset FM band radio station frequencies are stored, and when the FM2 band select button is selected (i.e., when the radio is set to FM2 mode), the radio controller RC′ associates the plurality of user preset buttons P1-P6 with a second respective plurality of memory locations M7fm-M12fm in which a second group of the user's favorite or other desired preset FM band radio station frequencies are stored.
The radio R′ also includes an Auto Select button AS′ that, when selected by a user, causes the radio controller RC′ to implement an auto select mode in which the radio controller scans the available AM and FM frequencies being received and stores some of the received frequencies in the preset memory as follows:                the strongest received AM radio frequencies are stored in the available auto select AM memory locations L1am-L6am; and,        the strongest received FM radio frequencies are stored in the available auto select FM memory locations L1fm-L12fm Also, when auto select mode is active, the radio controller re-maps the user preset buttons P′ to the auto select memory locations as follows:        in AM mode (combined with auto select mode), the radio controller RC′ associates the plurality of user preset buttons P1-P6 respectively with the plurality of auto select AM memory locations L1am-L6am;         in FM1 mode (combined with auto select mode), the radio controller RC′ associates the plurality of user preset buttons P1-P6 respectively with a first plurality of auto select FM memory locations L1fm-L6fm;         in FM2 mode (combined with auto select mode), the radio controller RC′ associates the plurality of user preset buttons P1-P6 respectively with a second plurality of auto select FM memory locations L7fm-L12fm. As such, when the auto select mode is active, the normal mode AM/FM1/FM2 memory locations M1am-M6am/M1fm-M6fm/M7fm-M12fm are disassociated from the user preset buttons P and are unavailable for use, in favor of the auto select AM/auto select FM1/auto select FM2 memory locations L1am-L6am/L1fm-L6fm/L7fm-L12fm. The auto select mode is terminated by selecting the Auto Select button AS′ again or by other means to deactivate auto select mode, at which time the radio controller RC′ resumes its normal mode of operation previously described.        
Many radio users do not understand the operation of the auto select mode associated with the Auto Select button AS′. In particular, many users do not understand that the auto select mode does not permanently overwrite their stored frequencies in the normal mode memory locations but, instead, only temporarily re-maps the user preset buttons P1-P6 to the auto select mode memory locations L1am-L6am or L1fm-L12fm depending upon whether the radio is in AM mode, FM1 mode, or FM2 mode. Users become concerned or confused when the frequencies normally associated with the user preset buttons P in the AM/FM1/FM2 bands are no longer available. This lack of understanding of the auto select mode has limited its acceptance and use among vehicle owners and others using vehicle radios such as the radio R′ of FIG. 1.